I am Rugged, Hear me ROAR!

I feel more sore than rugged today but yesterday I felt all kinds of rugged! I am officially a RUGGED MANIAC!

After a restful night's sleep and a sweet waffle and fruit breakfast in Wales at Tom and Krissy's place we headed out to Southwick, MA; which is further West than anyone in Mass should have to travel. Pulling into the Motocross track, it looked more like we'd be participating in a rodeo than a Marine Corps race. After checking in and situating the gear we took a few pre-run photos for posterity.

Some of the 10am race crew:

Lauren and I before getting muddy:

My "I'm about to be rugged as all hell" pose:

Around 9:45am we headed over to the starting line and did some stretching and mostly some laughing about the poor people coming in from the wave ahead of us all muddy and injured looking. The DJ did a countdown and at 10am we were off.

The first mile was a slow jog through wooded terrain, I was immediately winded which made me realize that forest running is VASTLY different than the concrete paradise I usually train and run on. The amount of muscle you use to stabilize your body as you trek over wet, muddy, sandy, tree branchy ground is astounding. There was a 5ft dirt mound to leap over just after the start and coming down off that I felt my left calf tighten up weirdly and shortly thereafter (BEFORE we hit a single obstacle mind you) I felt my calf muscle pop and/or pull and S-H-I-T was the only word that came to mind.

Now mind you have I have been running a race monthly, sometime more frequently since January of this year. And while I don't train as much as I should I certainly was running in the weeks leading up to this race. I have been injury free outside of blisters this entire time and in mile 1 of the Rugged Maniac before any obstacles I pull a muscle. Bound and determined to finish I decided it was better to be slowed down than to push it so hard I couldn't complete the race. And from there on it became more of run and less of a race.

We went over obstacles like a log pile, tall and taller barricade walls that involved all 4 of us to get each other over, water slides into mud pits and or water traps, rope climbs, cargo net climbs, etc and we all completed every single one. It's unfortunate that I wasn't in the mindframe to take a shot of the course after we finished but we did snap these photos after the race. Let me explain since we don't look at that muddy, the very final obstacle was a cargo net climb, onto a platform from which you took a water slide down into a huge pool from which you had to vault over long buoys that slid with your body and emerge a little less muddy but SOAKING WET and FREEZING haha ... so we look more damp and less dirty but believe me we WERE GROSS ...

Here's a group shot post race, I lost my headband somewhere in the mud pits and my number was dangling by a thread after the first set of barricade walls:

Donate Your Shoes Pile to Support Autism:

The pink and black ones were mine, they deserved a photo moment after what they carried me through:

When our wave was complete the timing system was down so beyond the guess of 1hr 10mins we're not entirely sure yet what our finish time was. Results are supposed to be posted online within the week so there will be a follow up blog post with the official time. In all honesty, my goal was just to complete this without incident so whatever time is it I will be totally happy with!

Gregg, Tom and Krissy, Nicole and John and Colleen and Mike were off next, we watched them cruise through and took some group shots after pre and post crappy outdoor shower that did not a whole lot beyond shifting the dirt around to different areas:

Lauren, Tommy and I waiting for a shower:

The 11am Crew ... and Moose:

Gret and Greg

Lauren, Mike & Colleen



So after an awesome, muddy, ridiculous day I headed to Oxford so my parents could take care of me haha. I am a little banged up, a lot sore and beyond tired but I am castless and not sporting a black eye so my bride is pleased that I can walk down the aisle for her next weekend and so am I :) It was one of the coolest things I have done and I look forward to finding out my finish time so I can crush is next year! If you have a chance to participate in one of these do it, so much fun and makes you feel so kickass!

Check back next weekend to see my race time and some pics from the wedding which have nothing to do with the blog or the races but I think they'll be fun to share.

Thanks for reading and be ready to do some intense reading in October where I'll be throwing Strike Out ALS Worcester followed by a (probably crazy) attempt at a 6.2 miler, a 3.1 miler and a 6.66 miler in a span of 8 days. Let's hope the calf muscle is healed up for that because training commences Monday the 3rd of October HARDCORE!

Rugged, Rainy and (hopefully) Injury Free

Tomorrow is the Rugged Maniac Race in Southwick, MA at the Motocross Track! Where is Southwick, MA you ask? Well since I originally thought it was where the Southwick Zoo is I assume many think that's the case but let me enlighten us both ... Southwick Zoo is actually located in Mendon, MA and Southwick, MA is actually located out in West Bum Massachusetts right about here ...

Naturally when I discovered it was basically in California way back when I signed up I called my good friends Tom and Krissy who live somewhere out there and told them had to join me since it was in their "neighborhood". So all total there will be about 12 or so people that I know attempting this insanity.

The race registration opens at 8am with the first wave starting at 8:45am. This first wave is a competitive wave and therefore I most certainly did not sign up for that one haha. We start at 10am with some of the crew following at 11:30am and others a bit later at 2pm in the afternoon.

The course is a standard 3.1 mile or 5K length but the slant on this one that the United States Marine Corps decided they wanted to share the agony they experience in training with us civilians so they paired with the Rugged Maniac staff to design this ...

Don't know what you're looking at, well allow me to explain. You are looking at 15 obstacles set essentially 0.2 miles apart along a motocross dirtbiking track which involves sand, mud, unreasonable amounts of hills and wooded terrain. The official course won't be announced until the day of but we have to look forward to a combination of the following obstacles laid out for us in some arrangement or another:

cargo net climb (looks easier than it is)

island bound over water trap (careful you might step on a falsey)

mud crawl under wire

thin plank balance over water/mud trap (more falsey action)

big tunnel run/duck

tire jungle (watch your face short people, aka me)

barricade wall climbs (hope some one's there to hoist me over)

little tunnel crawl

forest run (watch those ankles)

30 degree incline hill run

fire leap

So basically probably one of the most arduous things I have done in my lifetime to date. I am both totally amped up for it as well as scared out of my mind. I merely hope to be able to finish without running around any obstacles.

Figuring out what to wear has been my biggest challenge of the week. I need to be comfortable but also want something sturdy to stand up to all the water/mud/rain/dirt etc that the outfit will be exposed to.

After the race we can sit back, sip some brews and laugh at the people that have to go do what we just did ... I  think I'm looking forward to that part!

Wish me luck, I have to don a bridesmaid dress just 7 days later and have been warned by Miss Ashley Baker that if I show up in a cast or with a black eye or any other such deformity my name will be MUD! Check back on Sunday so pre and post race photos as well as to hear how I did, which, let's be honest, is probably going to be a hilarious story, hopefully accompanied by some great photos!

Don't forget that Strike Out ALS Worcester is coming up on Sunday, October 16th at 5pm at Bocado Tapas & Wine Bar in the woo. Hope to see you there.

And if you can't make it but would still like to donate, please visit the link to the right to make a secure donation directly to the fund.

Thanks for reading!